Regional directors will try again next week to figure out what to do about dangerous dogs in rural communities.

Nov. 20 will be the first time the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board will meet on the subject since a proposed dangerous dog bylaw was sent back to the drawing board following a meeting with RCMP on Oct. 26.

Board chair Randy Murray said Wednesday that directors will come up with way of dealing with dangerous dogs that's workable, sustainable and cost efficient.

"It's really challenging when you've got such a huge geographical area. You don't want to negatively impact the taxpayers but you don't want to see people at risk out there," he said.

A draft bylaw has been revised twice. The first excluded nuisance dogs and instead focused on canines that have attacked humans.

The second proposed reducing costs by having the RCMP take the lead and giving them the power to attend, investigate and seize dangerous dogs.

But police told the directors in October that Mounties don't have the ability, manpower or resources to take on that role, which stopped the bylaw in its tracks.

Now it's time to figure out what's next, said director Ken Gillis. He wasn't a fan of recruiting the RCMP, saying every detachment commander he approached told him the same thing Staff Sgt. Gord Stewart told the board.

Gillis wouldn't mind a bylaw that allows some communities to opt in but give other villages the ability to opt out. Director Bill Humphreys thinks it would be economical to have a central location where seized dogs can be kept until it's determined if they are dangerous or not.

Humphreys said the cost could be shared between rural taxpayers and municipalities. A single facility should do it given the dozen or so dangerous dog complaints reported a year.